Development of Level 4 autonomous trucks is moving closer to full commercialization, according to a recent partnership update among trucking original equipment manufacturer International, autonomous truck technology maker PlusAI and NVIDIA.
These new factory-built vehicles will be built by International, with PlusAI providing SuperDrive, the virtual driver. The AI computing power comes from NVIDIA, whose DRIVE AGX Thor compute platform is powered by custom-built Blackwell chips specifically designed for AI workloads to make safe autonomous driving possible.
“We are excited about the advancements we’re making in our autonomy program with our global autonomy partner PlusAI. Building on our fleet trials in Texas, the collaboration with NVIDIA and PlusAI is an important step on our path to production,” said Tobias Glitterstam, senior vice president and chief strategy and transformation officer at International, in a press release.
The collaboration between International and PlusAI was announced earlier in September and involved customer fleet trials using second-generation autonomous trucks. The pilots took place along the Interstate 35 corridor in Texas that runs between Laredo and Dallas.
Glitterstam added that the combination of automotive-grade computing with AI-native autonomous driving software will develop real value and reliability for many of International’s customers.
The collaboration also addresses the scalability requirements for widespread adoption of autonomous trucking technology. This is part of a wider Traton partnership with a later planned expansion throughout Europe as PlusAI looks toward full autonomous vehicle commercialization in 2027.
“By collaborating with International and NVIDIA, we’re enabling scalable, factory-built autonomy designed to meet the real-world performance and safety expectations of fleets. We have to build for a future with thousands of self-driving trucks on the road and that requires not just cutting-edge AI-native autonomous driving technology, but relentless rigor in safety, reliability, and excellence in large-scale manufacturing,” said David Liu, CEO and co-founder at PlusAI.
NVIDIA’s role in providing the advanced computing infrastructure is crucial for the success of the partnership. “NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor delivers the compute performance, functional safety, and scalability required for production-ready autonomous trucks,” said Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive at NVIDIA, in the release.
This comes as PlusAI recently announced in June that it is going public via a special purpose acquisition company merger with Churchill Capital Corp. IX.
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